


That Sweet One

by HenryTheHAP



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, Cheerful Jace, Grumpy Alec, M/M, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-11-30
Updated: 2018-11-30
Packaged: 2019-08-09 20:45:47
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,898
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16456919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HenryTheHAP/pseuds/HenryTheHAP
Summary: Alec and Jace first meet when they're kids. Throughout the years their relationship grows into something else.





	That Sweet One

"Why do you never play with the rest of us?" Jace asked curiously, walking over to the dark haired kid sitting in a corner. "You always just sit here and look grumpy."

"I like being alone," the other kid replied snappily.

"Come on, Alec," Jace whined, tugging at his arm. "Come play!"

"My name is Alexander," the brunet hissed, pulling his arm out of Jace's grip.

"I'm Jace!" Jace said brightly. "Nice to meet you, Alec. Now come play with us. Please?"

Alexander, Alec, looked at the huge smile on the blond boy's face. "What kind of game?"

"Dress up!" Jace said, happy the other kid seemed to be giving in.

Alec scoffed. "Dressing up is for girls."

"No, it isn't! It's fun, and we can play family," Jace insisted. "You can be my husband!"

"Family?" Alec gave a sceptical look. "We're boys."

"Come on, it's for fun," Jace pleaded. "Just for a little bit?"

"For a little bit," Alec finally said, putting down his book. He couldn't stop a slight smile when Jace cheered.

"When we grow up," Jace informed Alec as he took his hand and lead him over to the other children, "I'm going to marry you, and we'll be husbands for real!"

 

\-------------

 

"Come on," Jace said excitedly, dragging his boyfriend onto the flowery field. Alec gave a small, fond smile, reminded of when they'd both been kids and Jace had dragged him to play with the other children that first time.

Jace had changed very little, personality-wise. He was still cheerful, energetic and friendly, impulsive and almost always smiling. He'd spent most of the last fourteen years talking Alec into stepping out of his shell and experience life. Alec would have felt guilty if it weren't for the fact that Jace seemed to take some personal joy in convincing the brunet to join, giving a huge, triumphant smile every time. Every now and then, Alec would pretend to dig in his heels just to make the blond happy.

In complete opposite, Alec was reserved, quiet and rarely smiled other than for his siblings, and Jace. Jace had always been the exception to every rule, even his sense of self-preservation. Alec kept people at a distance, never did anything unplanned unless Jace unleashed his all-empowering puppy dog eyes, and spent a good deal of his time talking Jace out of crazy, impulsive ideas.

Jace had spread out the blankets they'd brought and yanked the picnic basket out of his hand, placing it in the shade of the tree. He pulled his boyfriend down and kissed him lightly on the lips

As Jace started unpacking the picnic basket, Alec glanced up to where their initials had been carved into the wood, a heart surrounding them.

_~'Why are we out here, Jace?' Alec asked sceptically._

__

_'I wanted us to have a spot that was all ours,' Jace replied._

__

_'Always so romantic, Jace,' Alec laughed. 'If the other guys knew...'_

__

_'I wouldn't care,' Jace said without hesitation. 'It makes you smile.'_

__

_Alec blushed softly at the look in Jace's eyes, like Alec was something special to him. He always looked at Alec like that, and the brunet had never been able to understand why._

__

_'Alec,' Jace said carefully, 'would you...' He looked away, expression nervous. 'Will you be my boyfriend?'_

__

_Alec grinned. 'Yeah, I'd really like that,' he said in a soft voice, and when Jace grinned, Alec smiled back. Jace leaned in for a kiss Alec clumsily reciprocated. After a few innocent kisses they became little more bold, tongues coming out to play like they'd seen on TV. Noses bumped and teeth clicked, and they laughed, figuring out the mechanics together._

__

_After, Jace had pulled out a pocket knife and carved their initials into the tree, a plus sign between them and a heart surrounding it all._

__

_'There,' he'd smiled. 'Now this is our special place, always.'~_

Jace glanced up to where his boyfriend was looking. "I was kinda terrified you'd say no."

"Really?" Alec asked in surprise.

Jace shrugged. "We were ten years old. I was scared you weren't gay, or not into me like that, and I was about to lose my best friend. You've always been guarded. When you were three, when you were ten, and even now I don't always know what's going on in that super-brain of yours." 

Alec gave small smile, stretching his legs out in front of him and bracing himself on his hands. "You're impulsive, I'll rock being enigmatic. Between us we'll never run out of mystery in this relationship."

Jace laughed, mimicking his position. "So you see this lasting?"

"Don't even joke, Jace," Alec said with a small pout.

Moving to straddle Alec, Jace gave an apologetic look. "This is forever." He smiled when Alec did, draping his arms loosely over Alec's shoulders and leaning in for a quick kiss that deepened after a few seconds.

Breaking the kiss, Alec gave Jace a happy smile. "We keep this up, we'll forget the picnic."

"I love you."

Alec stared at Jace in surprise, then felt his face split into a wide grin. "I love you."

Warmth filled Alec's chest as they admitted their feelings to each other for the first time. Their food was forgotten for a long while after that.

 

\-------------

 

Jace and Alec sombrely walked hand in hand to their tree. They stood underneath it, facing each other and holding each other's hands.

"So this is happening, then?" Jace said sadly.

"We won't be that far apart," Alec replied gently. "We can Skype every day and spend every weekend together, and we'll have holidays, too."

Jace looked away, mouth turned down at the corners. "We've gone to the same preschool and school and lived down from the road from each other our entire lives. I'm not sure what I'll do with myself without you there."

"We'll get through this, Jace. It'll be fine." Alec could hear the misery in his own voice. "We can do this."

Jace nodded, but there were tears leaking down his face. The first tears Alec had ever seen the blond shed. "I love you."

"I love you," Alec replied. They kissed as Alec felt warm wetness leak down his own cheeks.

 

\---------------

 

"Jace?" Alec asked carefully, sitting down next to the blond. He took in how utterly destroyed his boyfriend looked, tired and miserable and defeated.

"I can't do this," Jace muttered. "The distance. It's killing me."

Alec sighed, bringing up his legs and placing his elbows on his knees, mirroring Jace. "Yeah, me, too."

"I'm thinking of dropping out. I can get a job and we could get a place together," Jace muttered.

"Don't you dare drop out," Alec said instantly. "I'd never forgive myself, and you'd never forgive yourself, either."

"I'm failing all my classes," Jace mumbled.

Alec gave a small flinch. "It's only been three months. You can turn it around."

"I can't, Alec," Jace said miserably. "I hate every moment we're apart. I feel like shit all the time, and I'm exhausted."

"Any alternative isn't really an alternative," Alec murmured. "You can't leave school, I can't drop out, and breaking up is so far off the table it's not even in the kitchen."

Jace gave a sad laugh. "'Not even in the kitchen?' I love you, you know that? You say the weirdest things, and every time I fall a little more in love with you."

Alec twisted his head to look at Jace. "I love you, and I miss you so much. We..." He looked away, uncertainly.

"'We', what?" Jace pushed.

"I've been looking around at places. There's a house on the market right now. It's right between your uni and mine. It'll be hell travelling back and forth every day, and fucking expensive, and it needs fixing up, but honestly, Jace, I'm not handling this any better than you. So..." He gave Jace a nervous look. "Would you... Will you move in with me?"

Jace's smile outshone the sun. "Yeah, I'd love to!" Then his face fell. "We can't afford a house, Alec."

Alec shrugged. "My dad's giving me a loan slash down-payment on birthday presents and Christmas presents for the rest of eternity." He dangled two sets of keys between his index finger and thumb. "I already bought it."

Jace stared at Alec, then at the keys, then Alec again. "You... What did I do to deserve you? You're... You're the most perfect person I've ever met." He climbed onto Alec's lap, pushing his legs down and kissed Alec until they were both dizzy. Alec's hand with the keys was placed on Jace's thigh, and he fished a keyring out of the brunet's grasp and held it up. "We're moving in together," he said in awe.

Alec smiled at his boyfriend's joy. "You wanna go see?"

"Hell yeah!"

 

\----------

 

They'd spent the weekend packing, and were under their tree, enjoying a break. Every free moment had gone to fixing up the house, at least the parts they had the know-how for. They'd had to hire people for the rest. Unable to move in until the work was at least mostly complete, Alec and Jace had got a thick mattress and sheets to use as a make-shift bed. They had each their suitcase with stuff for when they stayed the night, but had accepted they still needed to sleep in their dorms more regularly than they would have liked.

Now the house was done, and they'd boxed most of their stuff from home, and what they'd had in their dorms. In a few hours the moving van would be parked in their street, ready to ship their stuff to their new home. Until then Alec and Jace were relaxing, finally able to appreciate that their work was done and their new life was starting.

"This is really happening," Jace murmured.

"Starting to get cold feet?" Alec grinned.

"Never," Jace smiled. "You know what day you asked me to move in with you?"

"Do tell," Alec said contentedly.

"You asked me on the date of our sixteenth anniversary of friendship, our sixth anniversary of being together, and of our first kiss, and, my favourite, the third anniversary of the first time we had sex." Jace tilted his head to look at Alec with a teasing smile.

"I know," Alec admitted. "I also know how much you like to list those things every single year. Especially the sex part."

Jace laughed heartily.

 

\----------

 

"You know what today is?" Jace said out of the blue as they lay in the sun, the gentle rustling of leaves sounding above them whenever a cool breeze blew.

"What's today?" Alec murmured, though he knew full well. He gave a startled yelp when Jace tugged him to his feet.

"This date, seventeen years ago, is the day we became friends. This day, ten years ago, we became boyfriends. This day, four years ago, we had sex for the first time. This day, one year ago, is when you asked me to move in with you. And this date, today, is the day I'm going to ask you to be my husband." Jace went down on one knee, holding a small jewellery box with a black ring inlayed with small red rubies and black sapphires in the centre groove that encircled the entire band. "Alexander Lightwood, will you do me the immeasurable honour of becoming my husband?"

TBC...


End file.
